{"id":329439,"date":"2025-12-05T13:10:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T13:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/329439\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T13:10:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T13:10:09","slug":"lebron-held-to-8-as-double-digit-points-streak-ends-in-lakers-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/329439\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron held to 8 as double-digit points streak ends in Lakers’ win"},"content":{"rendered":"

LeBron James<\/a> knew his record streak of double-digit scoring efforts was in jeopardy. And in the moment, he didn’t care.<\/p>\n

The right play was to pass the ball — so he did. And with that, his streak ended.<\/p>\n

James’ run of 1,297 consecutive double-digit regular-season scoring efforts ended Thursday night, when the NBA’s career points leader was held to eight points in the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a>‘ 123-120 win<\/a> over the Toronto Raptors<\/a>. He had the game-winning assist, setting up Rui Hachimura<\/a>‘s 3-pointer as time expired.<\/p>\n

Afterward, James was asked what thoughts he had about the streak ending.<\/p>\n

“None,” he said. “We won.”<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

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James could have tried to win the game — and extend the streak — on the final possession, but he instead passed to Hachimura in the left corner. Hachimura connected, and James threw his hands in the air in celebration.<\/p>\n

“Just playing the game the right way. You always make the right play,” James said. “That’s just been my M.O. That’s how I was taught the game. I’ve done that my whole career.”<\/p>\n

“LeBron is acutely aware of how many points he has at that point,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “He did it like he’s done so many times.”<\/p>\n

James checked back into the game for the final time Thursday with 5:23 left, the outcome and streak hanging in the balance. He had six points on 3-of-15 shooting at that point. He scored with 1:46 left to tie the score and missed a 14-footer with 1:01 left that would have gotten him to double digits.<\/p>\n

He didn’t take another shot — but could have. Austin Reaves<\/a> gave James the ball with a few seconds left, but James opted to make the pass instead.<\/p>\n

“The basketball gods, if you do it the right way, they tend to reward you,” Redick said.<\/p>\n

LeBron James was held below 10 points in a regular-season game for the first time since Jan. 5, 2007, against the Milwaukee Bucks, a streak of 1,297 consecutive games.\u00a0Frank Gunn\/The Canadian Press via AP<\/p>\n

James’ streak started on Jan. 6, 2007. It was, by far, the longest such streak in NBA history: Michael Jordan had 866 consecutive double-digit scoring games, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had 787, and Karl Malone has the fourth-longest run at 575.<\/p>\n

Among active players, you would have to add the streaks of the 11 players behind James to surpass his total of 1,297 consecutive games. Kevin Durant<\/a> is the new active leader at 267 consecutive games.<\/p>\n

“He’s such an unselfish player,” Lakers center Jake LaRavia<\/a> said. “He’s just playing the game of basketball. He had the opportunity, but because of the player he is and just who he is as a person, he made the unselfish play, passed it to Rui and we won the game.”<\/p>\n

It was usually an afterthought long before the start of fourth quarters. During James’ streak, he reached the 10-point mark by the start of the fourth quarter 1,266 times entering Thursday.<\/p>\n

But two of those single-digit games through three quarters had come in the past week or so. He had nine points going into the fourth against Dallas<\/a> on Nov. 28 then had six points going into the fourth against Phoenix<\/a> on Monday night.<\/p>\n

James managed to extend the streak against the Suns. One game later, it was done — and he celebrated anyway.<\/p>\n

“I always just make the right play. That’s automatic, win, lose or draw,” James said. “You make the right play — the game gods are always giving back to me.”<\/p>\n

ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LeBron James knew his record streak of double-digit scoring efforts was in jeopardy. And in the moment, he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-329439","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}